Samay Hindi Movie
A cop caper that's cerebral? Must be Hollywood, right? Wrong. Sushmita Sen hits Bollywood as ACP Malvika Chauhan in Samay - When Time Strikes and the message is loud and clear -- move over Vijayshanti; take a break, thunder thighs; scoot, ill-fitting uniforms.
This cop sports lip colour, plays PacMan, grooves with her daughter and sports immaculately tailored clothes. And at the end of the film, you're glad that she uses her grey cells more often than her fists.
Chauhan is assigned to solve the murder of the country's top industrialist. There are no clues to help her, no tell-tale fingerprints and no traces of the weapon used to commit the crime.
Even as she's grappling with this, two more people are murdered -- the country's top actress and top contract killer. Chauhan realises that the killer is leaving meticulously planned clues to help her find him. The only way to catch this man is by figuring out his psychology and thereby, predicting his next step.
Chauhan manages to crack the game, but you need to watch till the end to figure out if she's the victim, or the victor. Or, both.
Robby Grewal crafts a film that keeps you on the edge of your seat. There are no gory scenes, no fist-fights, and not much physical action really -- except for one street chase -- but the undercurrent of tension just gets stronger as the film proceeds.
Sen turns in a perfect performance, both as cerebral cop and single mom. Sushant Singh, who plays her junior in the film, is also the perfect pick, as is most of the cast.
But what clinches the day for Samay, is the taut storyline -- not even the item number Laila Laila is a frill. The build-up leaves you hanging on to every moment, the climax leaves you a little stunned... and then, just as suddenly as it began, the movie is over, and you're left wondering why the heck you can't get to see more of such stuff in Bollywood.
After all, not every movie can spring a surprise even in the last minute!
